The Navy wants officers with more understanding of product life cycle.
The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and MIT have collaborated to offer a Master’s program in Systems Engineering Management – Product Development in the 21st Century (SEM-PD21).
The program takes 2 years to complete and spans 8 quarters. It will be delivered to part time students in an executive format. Students can access the material through distance education and web-conferences, face-to-face interactions and networking are all done online.
The goal of the program is to bring an all-inclusive view to systems engineers and provide an in-depth understanding of life-cycle systems. Students will learn to find project hurdles early on, and they’ll gain the skills necessary for making changes to their projects and industry.
The program is working with engineers and technical specialists from the defense industry and the Department of Defense. A team-up that comes out of the 2001 Defense Appropriation Bill.
NPS joined MIT’s Education Consortium for Product Development in the 21st Century in response to the privatization of many Navy activities. This called for greater cooperation between the Navy and industry for graduate studies, and the program already has an accomplished graduate in Lt. Cmdr. Victor Glover, a new NASA astronaut and F/A-18 combat pilot.
To summarize then, SEM-PD21 will give students a valuable look into industry product development and allow them to conduct research in support of the DOD, federal government and industry.
